The present invention relates to a photographic printing and developing apparatus.
A known photographic printing and developing apparatus comprises a magazine 21A for accommodating a roll of photosensitive paper P1, a printing module 21B, a development module 21C, and a transfer path 21D for conveying the paper P1 from the printing module 21B to the developing module 21C, as shown in FIGS. 24 and 25. During operation, the paper P1 is unloaded from the magazine 21A, cut into sheets of a desired size, subjected to a printing process in the printing module 21B, and conveyed along the transfer path 21D to the development module 21C for development.
The transfer path 21D of the known photographic printing and developing apparatus may be a single line extending from the magazine 21A (FIG. 24) or a combination of two lines from a pair of magazines 21A and 21A' (FIG. 25). In the latter, the two magazines 21A and 21A' feed papers P along respective transfer paths 21E and 21E' which are later joined to each other forming the transfer path 21D.
Also, the known photographic printing and developing apparatus recently has been modified to include a paper handling device such as a paper pausing device for feeding the sheets of paper P to the development module 21C at a constant rate regardless of the speed of operation at the printing module 21B or a paper direction shifting device for shifting the direction of the sheets of paper P to increase the efficiency of feeding. The paper handling device is disposed substantially across the transfer path 21D.
While such paper handling device is capable of handling typical service sizes of paper sheets including E, L, KG (4.times.6 inches), and panorama formats, extra sizes used for enlargement cannot be subjected to operations of pausing or direction shifting.
If the transfer path 21D is a single line, it is necessary to allow any size of the paper P to be conveyed therethrough. This requires optimum dimensions of the paper handling device, thus increasing the overall cost of production. In addition, it takes a considerable length of time for enlarged sizes of the paper to pass through the paper handling device and will create a time loss during operation.
A modification of the known photographic printing and developing apparatus provided that the width of the transfer path 21D is increased at a midway portion thereof, and a succession of the paper sheets is divided by a turnout device 21F into two (FIG. 26) or more rows for increasing the number of sheets fed. In this case, the transfer path 21D is still a single line and has to allow any size of the paper sheets to pass therethrough.